
Class JB 12 X1Z0 
Book_ .A-3_S^ 



*^1 



THE EFF1CA C Y 




A '•- :HER ? S PRAYERS 



ILLUSTRATED IN 



ONVERSION AND LABORS 



a M ! 



BISHOP OF HIPPO, 



A 



RRATIVE, 



DELIVERED IN THE 



CHAPEL OF THE INSTITUTE AT FLUSHING, L. I. 



Si muler non orassel Augustinus non prjudieassel." 



PUBLISHED BY, AND FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE HEU;: 
(MISSIONARY) SOCIETY OF THE INSTITUTE. 



Weto*»¥prB : 

PRINTED AT THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL PRESS, 



M DCCC XXXIII. 






Entered according to Act of Congrt , by \^lliau» 

Augustus Muhlenberg, in the offici the ^'outl^rn. 



District of New- York. 



MAY 8 l9$? \ 



CCUTfcS BROWN, SKINT. 



+ 



ERRATA. 



Page 85, 10th line— for fertile, read futile. 
Page 91, 12th line— for exacting, read exerting. 
Page 93, 5th line— dele the y in jarring. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Flushing Institute, February 28, 1833. 
Rev. and Dear Sir, 

The undersigned have the honor of communi- 
cating to you the following extract from the minutes 
oi a late meeting of the Board of Managers of the 
Heber (Auxiliary Missionary) Society of the Institute. 

It having been suggested by the Rev. Mr. Muhlen- 
berg, that the narrative of the youth and conversion 
of St. Augustine lately read by the Rev. Mr. Seabury 
in the chapel of the Institute, would form an interest- 
ing and highly useful tract, the publication of which 
would add to the funds of the Society; it was on 
motion, 

Resolved, That the Rev. Mr. Seabury be respect- 
fully requested to furnish the Board with a copy of 
the said narrative for publication. 

Libertus Van Bokkelen, > ^ 

tt i4/r ci £ Committee, 

H. M. Sheaff, S 

Rev. Samuel Seabury. 



Young Gentlemen, 

I have received your note requesting a copy of 
the narrative lately delivered in the Chapel for pub- 
lication. 

It is a matter of surprise that some popular account 
of Augustine is not already before the public. The 
incidents of his early life, the piety of his mother, the 
peculiar discipline to which he was subjected, and the 



happy influence which he ultimately exercised on his 
own and subsequent times, are sufficient to render a 
narrative interesting and useful, with whatever want 
of taste or ability it may be written. 

Under these impressions, the manuscript which was 
hastily drawn up for the improvement of yourselves 
and your associates, is now cheerfully placed at your 
disposal. At the instance of the friend at whose sug- 
gestion your Society have requested the narrative, 
and without whose sanction it would not be published, 
I have broken it into chapters, and continued it so as 
to answer the end indicated in the title. 

That the tract may do good, and that by the sale of 
it your Society may realize their laudable hopes of 
aiding the Missionary cause, is the prayer, 

Gentlemen, 

Of your Friend, 

Samuel Se abbey*. 
To 



L. Van Bokkelen, > CmmUtaSm 
H. M. Sheaff, 3 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth of Augustine — Character of his parents — Early impres- 
sions of religion — Education — Baptism of his mother — Goes 
to Carthage — Death of his father. 

CHAPTER II. 

Connexion with the Manichees — Anecdote of his mother — 
Returns to Tagaste — Death of a friend — Removes to Car- 
thage — Interview with Faustus — Clandestine departure from 
Carthage. 

CHAPTER III. 

Arrives at Rome — Is dangerously ill — Anecdote of Alypius 

— Removes to Milan — Hears St. Ambrose, and renounces the 
Manichees — Unexpected meeting at Milan — Is disappointed 
in obtaining an interview with Ambrose — The state of his mind. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Leaves Milan — Interview with Simplician— The conversion 
of Victorinus — State of the Church at Milan — His conversion 

— Visit to his mother — Dismisses his pupils — His Baptism — 
Death of Monica. 

CHAPTER V. 

Retires in company with Alypius to Tagaste — Repairs to 
Hippo, where he is made Presbyter — The success of his minis- 
try — Is appointed Bishop — Plan for the education of ministers 

— The Pelagian controversy — Some account of his writings, 

CHAPTER VI. 

His death — Conclusion. 



1* 



THE EFFICACY 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth of Augustine — Character of his parents — Early im- 
pressions of religion — Education — Baptism of his mother — 
Goes to Carthage — Death of his father. 

Augustine,* Bishop of Hippo, was born 
at Tagaste, a small town of Ntimidia, 
on the 13th November, A. D. 354. His 
father, whose name was Patrieius, was 
a freedman, in poor circumstances, and 
rather below the middle class of society. 
He was a Pagan, a man of impetuous 
temper, and of a free way of living ; but of 
a generous spirit, attached to his son, and 
ambitious to secure for him the riches 
and honors of the world. His mother, 



* The subject of the following narrative must not be confound- 
ed with another of the same name, who was despatched toward 
the end of the sixth century, by Gregory I., to convert the English 
Saxons, under Ethelbert, to Christianity. 



8 THE EFFICACY OF 

though not wanting in intelligence, was 
chiefly distinguished for the amiableness 
of her character, and the keenness of her 
native sensibilities. At the time of Au- 
gustine's birth, she was not a woman of 
decided piety. She was, however, favor- 
ably disposed to religion, and not ignorant 
of the truths of the Christian faith. Her 
parents were nominally Christian, but 
she used to attribute her religious im- 
pressions, under God, not so much to 
them, as to the affectionate instructions 
of an aged and infirm female, who w T as 
a domestic in her father's family. Mo- 
nica, for that was the name of Augustine's 
mother, was anxious that her son should 
possess the piety which, though she had 
not, in the full sense, attained to it, she 
esteemed as the pearl of great price : and 
she, accordingly, endeavored to imbue 
his infant mind with the spirit and the 
truth of Jesus. The son, even in infancy, 
gave promise of future greatness. His 
feelings were ardent : and there appeared 
occasional gleams of that intellectuali 
splendor which afterward commandedj 
the admiration of the world. 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. V 

Such a mind, it may well be supposed, 
was susceptible of serious impressions. 
But something more than sensibility to 
religion is necessary to constitute religious 
character : and Monica early discovered 
that there was a wide difference between 
teaching her child Christian truth, and 
giving him Christian dispositions. The 
warmth of his temper and the vivacity 
of his spirits, often betrayed him into 
sinful excesses, which the mother in vain 
attempted to correct, while Patricius 
was accustomed to hail them as the in- 
dications of a lively genius. Early in 
life, however, an event happened, calcu- 
lated to give consistency to the yielding 
elements of youthful piety. He was 
visited with a dangerous illness: and, 
while suffering under its ravages, strong 
convictions of sinfulness and of the ne- 
cessity of pardon through the Saviour, 
seized upon his mind. He earnestly de- 
sired to be baptized, and preparations 
were accordingly made to administer the 
sacrament. But a favorable change sud- 
denly occuring in his disease, his baptism* 
in conformity with a prevalent error of 



10 THE EFFICACY OF 

his age, was injudiciously deferred, and 
he attached himself to the Church merely 
as a catechumen. This delay of baptism 
he afterward regretted : " How much 
better for me," he exclaims, " had I been 
in early life initiated into the fold of 
Christ !" — a circumstance the more wor- 
thy of notice, as suggesting a probable 
cause of those peculiar opinions on the 
efficacy of the Christian sacraments, 
which are generally deemed inconsistent 
with the theological system, which, in his 
later years, he substantially embraced. 

It is probable, that if these serious im- 
pressions had been followed up ; if he had 
been sheltered from the pollutions of the 
world, placed in circumstances favorable 
to virtue and piety, and subjected to a 
wholesome scriptural discipline, he would 
have been confirmed in good principles, 
and spared much of his subsequent un- 
happiness. But after his recovery he left 
his home, the virtuous asylum of youth, 
and repaired to a public school ; and so 
exchanged the vigilant and solicitous care 
of his mother, for the intercourse of frivo- 
lous and licentious companions, and the 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 11 

loose principles of a Pagan teacher. Here 
his pious resolutions were broken; he 
gave freer range to his sinful propensities, 
and began very soon to sow the seeds of 
late and bitter repentance. To gratify 
his own gluttony, or indulge his generosity 
toward his comrades, he used to pilfer at 
home. The desire of victory often spur- 
red him on, to take unfair advantages in 
his juvenile sports. Those, who should 
have been the guardians of his morals, 
were at no pains to secure his confi- 
dence, and thus naturally became the 
objects of distrust. Distrust led to de- 
ception ; and deception, growing into 
habit, engendered innumerable false- 
hoods. In later life, Augustine became 
too well acquainted with human nature, 
and the purity of the law of God, to re- 
solve these faults into the innocent effer- 
vescence of buoyant spirits, or disguise 
their turpitude under the equivocal plea 
of youthful frailty. He justly traced 
their origin to the same evil heart of un- 
belief, from which in riper years flow all 
the bitter waters of the guilt and misery 
of life. " Change the scene," he says, 



12 THE EFFICACY OF 

u from boys with their nuts and balls, to 
men with their estates and- kingdoms, 
and you behold the workings of the 
same corruption followed by severer, 
though analogous, punishments." 

Not only in the range of his amuse- 
ments, but in the conduct of his studies, 
the young Augustine was exposed to an 
unkindly influence. His teachers were 
Heathens. They did not seek to instil 
into his mind the fear of God. They did 
not habituate him to govern his actions 
by the dictates of conscience. They knew 
but little and cared less for the holier 
motives of the Christian life. They 
stimulated his talents by intemperate 
appeals to his sense of shame and honor. 
They imbittered his spirit with the taunts 
of disgrace, or intoxicated it with ex- 
cessive and ill-timed infusions of worldly 
praise. Nor in recounting the dangers 
of his soul, must the blighting influence 
of Heathen literature be forgotten. He 
was permitted, he tells us, to study the 
wanderings of iEneas and forget his own, 
and to deplore the self-murder of Dido, 
without reflecting on the death of his 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 13 

own soul alienated from God. In short, 
Augustine was educated, not for hea- 
ven, but for the world. There he found 
his models, thence he derived his princi- 
ples, thither he shaped his course. Thus 
the systematic discipline, which should 
have encouraged the feeble efforts of 
virtuous resolution, until they were con- 
solidated into habit, served to strengthen 
the tendencies of native corruption : and 
the child was regularly trained to forge 
the chains of sin, with which the man 
should be bound. Alas ! that we must 
turn from this picture of a Pagan gym- 
nasium, to find its too faithful transcript 
in the literary institutions of a Christian 
land. 

The school to which we have alluded, 
and at which Augustine was grounded 
in the rudiments of learning,, was at 
Madaura, a city of some note in the 
neighborhood of Tagaste. At the age of 
sixteen, he bade adieu to Madaura, and 
spent a year in vacation from study 
under his father's roof. A lad of his 
parts must have made, at this time, great- 
proficiency in his studies. He tells us, 
2 



14 THE EFFICACY OF 

that he was averse to Greek and the 
Mathematics, but passionately fond of 
the Latin classics. It is the aim, how- 
ever, of this rapid sketch, not to mark 
the progress of his literary career, but 
to trace the developments of his moral 
character. At this early period he had 
become a prey to that curse of unguarded 
youth, sensuality. He was a slave to 
his lusts. More than this cannot be said, 
as the very nature of the vice forbids an 
exposure of its loathsome details. During 
the year's vacation, he gave loose to his 
passions, and became wild and licentious. 
His father, a man of lax principles and 
jovial temper, instead of checking him in 
his mad career, smiled at what he re- 
garded as the harmless sallies of youth, 
and the bright dawnings of manhood. 
He sometimes expressed his delight to 
Monica. Her bosom had never cordially 
responded to such congratulations ; but 
now whatever bond of worldly sympathy 
had remained between them, was riven 
asunder. For, at this time, the religious 
impressions of her early years had power- 
fully revived : she had become decidedly 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 15 

pious, and, by baptism, had publicly 
assumed the obligations of Christianity. 
Oh ! how did her heart sink within her 
as she beheld the rampant passions and 
unbridled excesses of her licentious child ! 
Bitter indeed was heir cup to behold the 
two dearest objects of her affection on 
earth unconverted to the truth, and con- 
firming, and instigating one another in 
the principles and works of darkness ! 
For Patricius, though a catechumen by 
profession, was a stranger to vital piety. 
Often and affectionately did Monica 
remonstrate with her son on the folly 
and wickedness of his conduct ; and fer- 
vent and constant were her petitions for 
him at the throne of grace. Augustine 
had naturally an affectionate heart, but 
alas ! the voice of filial affection was now 
hushed in the din of worldly frivolity. 
In the silly affectation of a manly spirit, 
a common but unamiable trait of youth- 
ful character, he piqued himself on re- 
garding with contemptuous indifference, 
the faithful expostulations of a conscien- 
tious and intelligent mother. Her voice, 
or rather, to use his own expression, the 



16 THE EFFICACY OF 

voice of God in her, he despised, and 
thought it to be only the voice of a 
woman. He now enjoyed what the san- 
guine youth covets as freedom : that is 
to say, he was a base and dishonest slave 
of the world. " So blinded was I," he 
says, " that I should have blushed to be 
thought less wicked than my companions, 
and even invented false stories of my 
sinful exploits to obtain their commenda- 
tion." " My father," he adds, " thought 
little of God and much of his son in vain 
expectations. Thus I made progress in 
vice, and shut up myself in the darkness 
of sin, so as to bar up against myself 
the admission of divine truth." 

Ambitious for the future eminence of 
his son, Patricius was anxious that he 
should enjoy, in the cultivation of his 
rare talents, the highest facilities of his 
age and country. To this end he deter- 
mined to send him to Carthage ; a privi- 
lege to which his station in life hardly 
entitled him to aspire, and which his 
straitened circumstances ill qualified him 
to afford. Augustine, accordingly, was 
sent thither, at the expiration of his six- 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 17 

teenth year. " I came to Carthage," he 
says, " surrounded by flagitious lusts :" 
and, as might be expected, he plunged 
at once into the whirpool of dissipation. 
His studies received a portion of his time ; 
for he was naturally greedy of applause, 
and he sought to distinguish himself in 
the forum. But the theatre and the 
public games were his favorite and con- 
stant resort. He had been at Carthage, 
however, scarcely a year, when this round 
of worldly pleasure received a melan- 
choly interruption. He was called on to 
lament the death of his father. Whether 
he returned home to witness the dying 
scene, we are not informed; but on a 
young mind of such extraordinary sen- 
sibility, we cannot doubt that the event 
made a most painful, and for the. time, 
probably, a salutary impression. His 
mother enjoyed a consolation, in this 
bereavement, in which, at the time, her 
son could not participate. The amiable 
entreaties and pious intercessions of 
Monica had triumphed, at length, over 
the stubborn heart of Patricius : and, 
for some time before his death, he had 
2* 



18 THE EFFICACY OF 

given gratifying evidence of Christian 
character, and been admitted to the ' laver 
of regeneration.' The mother, having 
resigned to God the husband whom she 
had been the instrument of restoring to 
his image, now clung more closely than 
ever to her son, the chief surviving object 
of her earthly solicitude. She fully ap- 
preciated, perhaps, as Augustine himself 
intimates, she overrated the advantages 
of literary education; and, with a noble 
disinterestedness, in order to secure them 
to her son, sacrificed all but the bare 
necessaries of life. At her expense he 
continued, for two or three years longer, 
to pursue his studies at Carthage. As 
he grew older he became more sober; 
but though visited with severe compunc- 
tions of conscience, and dreadful mis- 
givings on the subject of religion, so far 
was he from exhibiting the fruits of 
substantial piety, that he did not even 
renounce the grosser habits of sensual 
indulgence. His social dispositions and 
brilliant imagination gained for him the 
company of those, whom the world 
terms, friends. But these were merely 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 19 

the links of the chain with which Satan 
was seeking to bind him to his triumphal 
car. True friends, who sought to ad- 
monish him of his errors, warn him of his 
danger and pray for his deliverance, alas ! 
he had none. None 1 yes, there was one 
whose bowels yearned towards him with 
a tender and agonizing solicitude known 
only to the Christian mother, who weeps 
over the ruin of a profligate son. Would 
that the youthful reader could realize the 
worth of such a friend ! Would that he 
could believe that manhood knows not a 
purer joy than the ennobling recollection 
of reverencing the pious solicitude of a 
mother ! . . 



20 THE EFFICACY OF 



CHAPTER II. 



Connexion with the Manichees — Anecdote of his mother — 
Returns to Tagaste — Death of a friend — Removes to Carthage — 
Interview with Faustus — Clandestine departure from Carthage. 

We must now advert to an event in 
the history of Augustine, which had no 
little influence on his subsequent life and 
character. We allude to his connexion 
with the Manichees. It is unnecessary 
to dwell on the peculiarities of this sect, 
further than to state, that they adulter- 
ated the truth of Christ, with admixtures 
of the Eastern philosophy. They did not 
reject the New Testament, but connected 
with the belief of it, a denial of the 
spirituality of the Deity, and an admis- 
sion of two independent and coeternal 
principles, the one good and the other 
evil. Such views are foreign to our 
habits of thought ; and the most super- 
ficial reader is ready to pronounce them 
absurd. But the mind accustomed to 
compare the opinions of distant ages, 
knows that they are as capable of subtile 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 21 

disquisition and of enlisting mighty ener- 
gies in their defence, as any of the pro- 
ducts of reason, when unsubdued to the 
spirit and the word of God ; much more 
so, we may add, than half the religious 
theories that have spread their cobweb 
meshes over the nineteenth century. For 
the rest, suffice it to say, that the Mani- 
chees possessed one practical feature in 
common with many other heresies which 
God has permitted to exist, as the means 
of fully trying and developing the charac- 
ter of his people. They contrived under 
cover of some plausible opinions and the 
specious pretext of seeking after truth to 
connect the profession of religion with 
the sinful indulgence of the world. . This 
was exactly the religion for which Au- 
gustine unconsciously longed. His judg- 
ment was too solid, and of too practical 
a mould, to deny the credibility of scrip- 
tural truth, and his native sensibilities 
were too keen not to respond to its call. 
But the flesh and the world, though they 
could not drown the voice of conscience, 
were more than a match for the under- 
standing and the natural heart: and the 



22 THE EFFICACY OF 

tempter availing himself of their aid, de- 
coyed him into his trap by alluring him, 
with the specious semblance of truth, to 
justify the sins which he would not aban- 
don. His aspiring intellect delighted to 
grapple with the bold and daring specu- 
lations of the Manichees, and to produce 
them, as he vainly fancied, in triumphant 
array with the humiliating doctrines of 
the Cross. "I sought thee, O my God," 
he exclaims, " not in spiritual but in car- 
nal speculations." Thus his understand- 
ing was kept "at bay, his conscience was 
lulled asleep, the rein was thrown on his 
carnal appetites, and the unhappy youth, 
in the flush of vain confidence, .was fast 
riding over the pitfalls of sensuality and 
perdition. Like many other heretics, too, 
he had those secret misgivings which im- 
pelled him to fortify his errors by increas- 
ing the number of their advocates. He 
eagerly sought to make proselytes, nor 
did he rest until he had tainted the minds 
of several of his friends with the corrup- 
tions of his own. 

To this period must be referred the 
touching incident which gave occasion 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 23 

to a saying, that has been since often 
repeated to animate the hopes and 
prayers of parental piety. His mother, 
whose watchful eye still followed him/ 
applied to a celebrated bishop, beseech- 
ing him to use his influence to reclaim 
her erring son. The bishop, though suit- 
ably affected by the request, was well 
enough acquainted with human nature, 
and with the temper of Augustine's 
mind, to know that such an attempt, at 
that time, would be fruitless. " Your 
son," said he, " is too much elated at 
present, and carried away with the pleas- 
ing novelty of error, to regard argu- 
ments ; — as appears by the pleasure he 
takes in puzzling many ignorant persons 
with his questions. Let him alone ; only 
continue to pray to the Lord for him : 
he will in the course of his study discover 
his error." All this did not satisfy the 
anxious parent. With floods of tears she 
reiterated her request ; when, at last, a 
little ruffled by her importunity, " Leave 
me, good woman," he exclaimed, " it is 
impossible that the child of such tears 
should perish !" 



24 THE EFFICACY OF 

After he became of age, Augustine left 
Carthage, and, settling himself in his 
native village, opened a school for Gram- 
mar. Among his associates, at this time, 
was one to whom he was strongly at- 
tached. " There is no true friendship," 
he observes, " but such as God cements 
among those who cleave to him by the 
love shed abroad in their hearts by the 
Holy Ghost." But many circumstances 
concurred to render this attachment one 
of peculiar interest. The subjects of it 
had been companions from infancy ; their 
studies were similar, their tastes conge- 
nial ; and the sympathies, thence result- 
ing, had been ripened by long and inti- 
mate intercourse. By the influence of a 
superior mind, Augustine had succeeded 
in seducing his amiable friend from the 
true faitli into the vagaries of the Mani- 
chean heresy. Suddenly this young man 
became dangerously ill. Augustine hur- 
ried to his bedside. While he lay sense- 
less of a fever, his friends, complying with 
a prevalent error, baptized him without 
his knowledge. Very unexpectedly he 
began to recover ; and Augustine em- 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 25 

braced the first opportunity to banter 
Mm on the baptism which he had un- 
consciously received. To his great sur- 
prise, his friend recoiled from him as an 
enemy, and promptly requested him to 
drop the subject. Augustine complied 
with his wishes ; intending to resume the 
conversation as soon as returning health 
would allow. But this time never ar- 
rived. In the course of a few days his 
friend relapsed and died. Augustine 
was overwhelmed with grief. He loved 
his friend with ardor, and lamented him 
with poignant anguish. Now he felt the 
emptiness of worldly joy. Now he saw 
the rottenness of the foundation on which 
his hopes were reared. Now he expe- 
rienced the inefficacy of a false religion. 
In vain did he attempt to throw his 
burden on God : it returned again on his 
distracted soul : for as yet he knew not 
the true God revealed to the believer in 
Jesus Christ. 

Monica was now in hopes that religion 

would come in to supply the void in the 

bosom of her son. But Augustine was 

a stranger to the home of inward com- 

3 



26 THE EFFICACY OF 

munion. He knew not that every indi- 
vidual, as well as every family, can only 
be happy by cultivating the peaceful 
virtues within his own bosom. Instead of 
guarding this sanctuary from intrusion, 
he abandoned it, and rushed into the 
world ; there to grasp illusion for reality, 
and to seek to satisfy the cravings of an 
immortal nature by the varying excite- 
ment of changeful and outward objects. 
All around him recalled painful recollec- 
tions ; and instead of directing them to a 
salutary end, he sought to dissipate them 
by changing the scene. He abruptly left 
Tagaste, and commenced the exercise of 
his professional duties anew and under 
more favorable auspices at Carthage. 
There his grief was dispelled, and the 
world resumed its sway. New amuse- 
ments were courted, new intimacies were 
contracted. Again was the affectionate 
mother doomed to weep over the wither- 
ed buds of promise. But that mother 
never forsook him, never despaired of 
him. The wormwood of her anguish 
was always sweetened by some infu- 
sion of divine hope. " For nine years," 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 27 

he says, " while I was rolling in the slime 
of sin, often attempting to rise and still 
sinking deeper, did she in vigorous hope 
persist in incessant prayer." 

From this time, Augustine continued 
to reside at Carthage for about six years. 
How soon his mother followed him does 
not appear ; but we shall find that she 
was with him toward the close of this 
period, and probably much before. Thus 
far, however, her persuasions and prayers 
were seemingly of no avail, nor do we 
learn that any thing happened, in this 
interval, to inspire her with fresh encour- 
agement. He became, indeed, dissatis- 
fied with the doctrines of the Manichees, 
and openly expressed his feelings, but 
was exhorted by their leading men to 
await the arrival of Faustus at Carthage, 
who, it was said, would resolve all his 
doubts. Faustus was the great pillar 
their sect ; a fluent and eloquent spp 
but of superficial attainments j 
representative of the majori' 
tical preachers of this a 7 
At length he visited Cart 1 
gustine eagerly sr ,iew 



28 THE EFFICACY OF 

with him, and the result was a virtual 
abandonment of the Manichean heresy. 
The superficial eloquence that captivated 
the multitude, was lost on the original 
and profound mind of Augustine. After 
this he remained a Manichee in name, 
but in reality relapsed into a dreary 
skepticism. The truth is, the error had 
lost its novelty, and his vanity could no 
longer be gratified by the ingenious de- 
fence of its absurdities. 

We pass on from this incident, instruct- 
ive as it is, to relate an action which has 
left, perhaps, a deeper stain on the me- 
mory of Augustine, than any single cir- 
cumstance in his history. For some 
reasons not distinctly known, he became 
dissatisfied with his residence at Car- 
thage. Some have ascribed his disgust 
I o the insolence of his pupils. He talks, 
nowever, of the madness of one class of 
is, and the friendship of another : 
probably, therefore, as his talents would 
not permit him to remain in obscurity, 
he haa an active share in public 

volved in the disquiet- 
c a consequent upon 



A MO'i 29 

such a step. But ^ T iave 

been the reason, he det mod led r leave 
Carthage; and Rome, the mistfl ss 
world, now beckoned him to a m 
theatre of ambition. But the <. 
of his mother presented an obstacle not 
easily to be overcome. To gain n 
consent to his departure was impossible ; 
and, probably, he thought it no less so 
to withstand her entreaties to remain. 
In this strait he resolved to practise on 
her a deliberate deception. But who, 
at such a time, could lull to sleep the 
suspicions of maternal love? What 
secrecy of preparation could elude the 
vigilance of a mother's eye ? She hover- 
ed about his path : and, as he was on 
the point of absconding, she sprung to- 
ward him and with palpitating heart 
pressed closely to his side. "My son!" 
she exclaimed, " what means this myste- 
rious conduct? Is it possible? Is that 

vessel ?" " Fear not, mother," 

interrupted Augustine. " A friend is em- 
barking on a distant voyage : I propose 
to accompany him without the harbor 
3* 



30 i op 

m i^on had never deceived 

ca would not doubt his 
3 ut a voice within whispered her 
thai fdl was not right, and, with anxious 
^ rings, she insisted on accompanying 
xm to the shore. Near the point of em- 
barkation was an oratory dedicated to 
St. Cyprian. Augustine, conducting his 
mother within, embraced her affection- 
ately, and said, "Remain here, mother, 
till morning, and then your son will again 
fold you to his bosom." " God grant it !" 
said the half-distracted Monica, as she 
relaxed her grasp, and permitted her son 
to depart. The feverish disquietude of 
that night, spent, as her son assures us, 
in " weeping and praying," we may con- 
ceive. But when the morning sun arose, 
and no [vessel was in sight ; when not a 
doubt was left that her son had fled from 
her for ever ; nay, that the son of so many 
prayers and tears had turned his back 
on his mother with a lie in his heart, 
who can describe, who but a heart-broken 
mother can feel the anguish of her bleed- 
ing bosom ? She rent the air, he tells us, 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 31 

with her shrieks and groans. But the 
frenzy of the mother soon yielded to the 
piety of the saint. Faith resumed its 
sway : the wild waves of grief subsided : 
and the calm sorrow, that now buried 
itself in the recesses of her bosom, inspir- 
ed her devotion with a new and holier 
fervor. 

Ungrateful and perfidious wretch ! 
methinks the reader will exclaim. And 
thus ready are we to fill up the measure 
of our fathers, and say if we had lived in 
their days, we had not been partakers 
with them in the blood of the prophets. 
True, the conduct of Augustine admits 
of neither excuse nor palliation. But 
let it not be forgotten, that few men 
possessed natural affection of so high an 
order or in so great a degree. At an 
early period he would have shuddered 
at the thought, and believed himself 
utterly incapable of such mingled decep- 
tion and ingratitude. But as he grew 
up, the kindlier feelings of his nature 
were engrossed and vitiated by unworthy 
objects. Thus his heart was impercepti- 



32 THE EFFICACY OF 

bly estranged from his parent : and the es- 
trangement was increased by the suasions 
of a piety which he could not reciprocate 
and which, in proportion as it approved 
itself to his conscience, was uncongenial 
to his worldly feelings. So inadequate 
are the mere sympathies of the natural 
heart, when uncontrolled by a higher 
principle, for a pure and permanent at- 
tachment ! So true is it that the only im- 
perishable bond of union is that Christian 
charity which is at once equable in its 
influence and eternal in its essence ! In 
other words, let me assure the mother 
who peruses these pages, that the heart 
of her offspring, however it may now 
warm with the glow of filial affection, 
is capable of harboring greater perfidy 
than Augustine's. Let new attractions 
be presented and new affinities may take 
place. The attachments of the animal 
nature may be dissolved by the same law 
by which they were cemented. Suffer 
not your son then to rest in natural 
affection as a sufficient security for filial 
duty, but invite him daily to the throne 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 33 

of grace, to implore that charity which 
never faileth; which will sweeten all 
the intercourse of life, pouring forth the 
stream of beneficence, even when disease 
or poverty or some other vicissitude of 
worldly fortune, has diverted the current 
or dried up the fountain of natural 
sympathy. 



34 THE EFFICACY OF 



CHAPTER III. 

Arrives at Rome — Is dangerously ill — Anecdote of Alypius 
— Removes to Milan — Hears St. Ambrose, and renounces the 
Manichees — Unexpected meeting at Milan — Is disappointed 
in obtaining an interview with Ambrose — The state of his mind. 

With a clear sky and a fair breeze the 
vessel, in which Augustine embarked, 
was soon wafted to the mouth of the 
Tiber. What were his feelings during 
the voyage we can learn only from con- 
jecture ; but surely after so cruel an act 
of deception, they could have been little 
in harmony with the serenity of nature. 
Arrived in the imperial city, he took up 
his abode with one of the Manichean fra- 
ternity. This sect was divided into classes, 
the elect and the auditors ; of which Au- 
gustine belonged to the former and his 
host to the latter. "My landlord," he 
tells us, "who had not so much expe- 
rience as I of the sect, was elevated withl 
their fancies. I checked his sanguine 
views, and though the intimacy I had 
contracted with this people made me 
backward to seek elsewhere for truth, 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 35 

I was, however, little solicitous to defend 
the reputation of their tenets." For his 
own part, it would seem, that, in the pride 
of intellect, he continued to exercise the 
vigorous powers of his mind on the ab- 
struse questions of theology. How, he 
asked, can there be any such thing as a 
spiritual substance? The most subtile 
essence of which I can conceive is, after 
all, material. How can a good being 
create an evil one ? It is impossible : 
and I must therefore conclude that evil 
is coeternal with good, and consequently 
that God has no independent existence. 
Giant as Augustine was in intellectual 
strength, we are here tempted to exclaim, 
Poor deluded child ! why didst thou not 
submit thy mind to the teachings of thy 
Father ? Madly persisting in the attempt 
to discover the hidden counsels of God, 
to what shall we compare him but to a 
maniac, throwing his bucket into the 
an, and hoping, at each successive 

raught, to lay open the unfathomable 

byss below ! 
He had not been long at Rome, when 
violent fever brought him to the verge 



36 THE EFFICACY OF 

of the grave. But his mind was now 
too confirmed in impiety to be profited 
by such discipline. He had derided the 
medicine of human misery until he had 
despaired of experiencing its efficacy. 
He rested in his own strength and set 
death at defiance. " Whither must I 
have gone," he exclaims, in reverting 
afterward to this fearful crisis of his life, 
" whither must I have gone, had I at that 
time departed hence, but to the fire and 
torments worthy of my deeds ?" " How 
my mother," he subjoins, " whose affec- 
tion, both natural and spiritual, toward 
me was so great, would have borne such 
a stroke, I cannot conceive." Monica was 
indeed ignorant of his situation : but 
though absent in the body, he was still 
present to her soul. She became one 
with her son by looking up to the unity 
in which both were created and redeem- 
ed, and by imploring the influences by 
which both might, in the same unity, 
be sanctified. "Morning and evening," 
he tells us, "she frequented the church | 
to hear the word of God and to pray ; 
and the salvation of her son was thei 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 37 

constant burden of her supplication." 
With such perseverance was the grace 
of prayer, that was dispensed to the 
mother, exerted in behalf of the son. 
Reader! dost thou so well understand 
the laws of spirit as to deny, in the face 
of the word of God, that the light, thus 
derived from the Sun of Righteousness, 
and steadily reflected toward a wander- 
ing spirit, was a means of restoring that 
spirit to the order that it had violated ? 
was at least one of the counter attrac- 
tions by which it was ultimately adjusted 
and retained in the orb in which it was 
destined, through eternity, to revolve 
around the centre of spiritual influence ? 
It may be mentioned as an evidence 
of the colloquial powers and social char- 
acter of Augustine, and of the ardor of 
his attachments, that Nebridius, a gen- 
tleman of property and of liberal educa- 
tion, left Carthage, and took up his resi- 
dence at Rome, in order to enjoy the 
society of his friend. At Rome, also, to 
his agreeable surprise, he fell in with 
Alypius, who had been a pupil of his at 
Tagaste and Carthage, and who was 
4 



38 THE EFFICACY OF 

now attending the Roman schools with 
the view of qualifying himself for the 
legal profession. While he remained 
here, these were his bosom friends, Ne- 
bridius was a man of the greater mind, 
and capable of influencing Augustine 
against some of the errors which he had 
espoused, and, in particular, of Weaning 
him from Astrology, to which, in common 
with many great men of more enlighten- 
ed ages, he was, at one time, addicted, 
Alypius possessed a more pliable char- 
acter, and though not wanting in talents, 
was distinguished rather for the warmth 
of his passions than the vigor of his 
mind. In one of his rhetorical lectures 
at Carthage, Augustine abruptly burst 
out into an eloquent invective against the 
Circensian games. Alypius, at this time 
one of their most reckless votaries, 
chanced to be present. The eloquence 
which was intended as a general cen- 
sure, came home to Alypius as a personal 
reproof. From that time he resolved to 
abandon the bewitching- but destructive 
amusement. He waited on Augustine, 
announced to him the intention and the 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 39 

cause of it. Henceforward, Augustine 
numbered him amongst his most intimate 
friends: and, under such auspices, no 
wonder that Alypius soon after became 
a proselyte of the Manichees. And here 

I cannot forbear to mention an anecdote 
that illustrates the manners of the Au- 
gustan age, and, by contrast, the benign 
influence of Christianity on the morals 
of our own. When Alypius went to 
Rome, he had resolved, for fear of being 
enticed from his studies, never to attend 
the exhibition of the gladiators, a diver- 
sion of which he had been passionately 
fond. Some of his dissipated associates 
seized him one night, in a wild freak, 
and forcibly hurried him to the spot. 
Alypius, still adhering to the spirit of his 
vow, determined, after he had entered 
the theatre, to remain with his eyes shut. 
For awhile he adhered to his resolution ; 

II till, on a certain occasion, when the 
whole house rang with shouting, he 
opened his eyes to see what was the 
matter. Beholding a gladiator wounded, 
at the sight of the blood he was inebriated 
with the sanguinary pleasure. He gazed, 



40 THE EFFICACY OF 

he shouted, he was inflamed, and carried 
away with him the madness which sti- 
mulated him to repeat his visits. He 
became enamored of the sports, even 
more than those who had dragged him 
thither;" frequented them himself, and 
seduced others to accompany him. Such 
is the weakness of human resolution. 
But Alypius had yet to learn that he 
must distrust his own strength, and look 
to Him who is mighty to save. He 
afterward became an active minister of 
Christ, and bishop of his native town, 
Tagaste. Here he continued to the day 
of his death, in habits of fraternal inter- 
course with his friend, and their names 
are associated in the history of the Pela- 
gian controversy. 

Augustine was discontented at Rome ; 
and, having spent about a year in shar- 
ing its luxuries and contemplating its 
magnificence, he resolved to leave it. 
Providence had so ordered it, that about 
this time application was made to Sym- 
machus, the prefect of Rome, to nomi- 
nate a professor to the chair of rhetoric 
at Milan, and Augustine, through the 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 41 

influence of his Manichean friends, suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the honor. Thither 
he repaired, accompanied by Nebridius 
and Alypius, who shared, to a consider- 
able extent, his religious perplexities, as 
well as his friendship. The Church at 
Milan was at this time rejoicing in the 
services of Ambrose, a man who was 
much older than Augustine, resembling 
him in the ardor of his affections, and 
the variety of his learning, and but 
little his inferior in intellectual energy. 
Augustine lost no time in waiting on 
Ambrose. He approached him not as a 
teacher of divine truth, but as a scholar 
of literary eminence. He was won, how- 
ever, by the unaffected simplicity and 
paternal kindness of his manners. He 
attended his lectures, not to be edified 
by their matter, but to criticise the style 
and manner of the preacher, and to see 
how far fame had done justice to his 
eloquence. Charmed at first with their 
language, he came, by degrees, to medi- 
tate on their doctrine. Salvation, he 
tells us, is far from sinners, such as he 

then was; and yet, he adds, "I was 

4* 



42 THE EFFICACY OF 

gradually approaching it and knew it 
not." His objections against the Scrip- 
tures vanished before the luminous and 
comprehensive expositions of Ambrose; 
and he acknowledged that he had reason 
to rebuke himself for the disparaging 
opinions of them which he had hastily 
formed. He now became more than 
ever disgusted with the Manichees, and, 
convinced of the fallacy and dangerous 
tendency of their doctrines, he formally 
renounced their connexion, and again 
professed himself a catechumen in the 
orthodox portion of the Church. But 
still was he a stranger to the life-giving 
doctrines of the Gospel. Again he re- 
volved in his mind the various systems 
of philosophy, and again convinced of 
their absurdity, and their inadequateness 
to satisfy the spiritual wants of man, he 
fell back on himself in a state of doubt 
and despondency. 

One day at Milan, and probably while 
lingering round the spot to which he had 
been chained by the eloquence of Am- 
brose, he was suddenly startled by a 
well-known voice, and had hardly time 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 43 

to recover from his surprise, before he 
found himself in the arms of his mother. 
The result .of the inquiries which she 
had made had enabled her to trace him 
through his changes of residence, and 
she had followed him by sea and land ; 
Jier affection inducing her to brave all 
daggers, and her piety supporting her 
under every trial. The scene which 
followed, of mutual expressions of love, 
mingled with tender reproaches on the 
one hand, and prayers for forgiveness on 
the other, and with tears of joy for both, 
may well be imagined. As- soon as the 
tumult of rapture had subsided, the spi- 
ritual interests of her son were the object 
of the mother's solicitous inquiries. In 
few words Augustine explained to her 
the state of his mind. Monica was too 
enlightened a Christian, not to perceive 
that the dawn of the day of grace had 
already appeared. " I believe in Christ," 
she replied, " that before I leave this 
world, I shall see you a sound believer." 
Who does not respect the constancy of 
her faith"? Who would not have been 
touched by her intercessions, when with 



44 THE EFFICACY OF 

uplifted hands and streaming eyes, she 
fell on her knees and besought God to 
perfect the good work which he had 
begun 1 Truly it is not merely natural 
sentiment that is moved ; it is not merely 
the Christian oracles that declare it; 
philosophy herself, if we will dearly pur- 
chase of her the truth which we might 
accept for nothing as the gift of God, 
assures us, that all the relations of spi- 
ritual entity would be severed, that its 
various parts (so to speak) would recede 
from and repel one another, if the fer- 
vent and ceaseless prayers of a mother, 
for the spiritual welfare of her son, could 
ascend to the Father of spirits, with 
as little effect as words spoken to the 
winds. 

Every Lord's day now found the mo- 
ther and son regular attendants oif the 
ministry of Ambrose. Monica looked up 
to the bishop with sentiments of esteem 
and veneration, as the delegated messen- 
ger of God, and the faithful dispenser of 
his oracles. But, when she regarded 
him as the deliverer of her son from the 
shackles of the Manichees, the ardor of 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 45 

her attachment was inflamed beyond 
measure. Ambrose in turn was charmed 
with the sweetness of her dispositions, 
the benevolence of her actions, and the 
fervor of her piety: and often in the 
course of his preaching would he break 
out in commendation of her, and con- 
gratulate Augustine on the possession of 
such a mother. " Little did he know," 
says Augustine, " what sort of a son she 
had ; one who doubted of religion ; who 
did not groan to God in prayer, and who 
was intent only on studies and restless 
in investigations." Ambrose was, in ef- 
fect, a stranger to Augustine. " He knew 
not," says he, "the fluctuations of my 
soul, nor the dangerous pit in which I 
was enslaved." And it may help us to 
form an idea of the arduous duties of a 
bishop in those days when we learn that 
Augustine, whose modesty (as his histo- 
rian suggests) may have prevented him 
from soliciting a formal interview with 
the bishop, was never able to obtain 
from him a conference in which he could 
unbosom the distresses of his soul. The 
little time in which the bishop could 



46 THE EFFICACY OF 

escape from the crowds of persons whose 
necessities he relieved, and whose dif- 
ferences, according to the primitive usage 
of the Church, it was his delicate task to 
adjust, barely sufficed for the refreshment 
of his body with food, or his mind with 
reading. 

Augustine was at this time so far sub- 
dued to the truth, as sincerely to desire 
a life of holiness. He frequently resorted 
to the church, not only, as formerly, to 
listen to the eloquence of the preacher, 
but with the purer intention of lifting up 
his heart to God in prayer. But as yet 
religion was an occasional and evanescent 
feeling, rather than a permanent and 
operative principle. He felt continually 
the need of a deeper and more radical 
change : yet still did he retain his secu- 
lar employments ; still did he covet the 
wealth and applause of the world ; nor 
could he bring himself to an entire aban- 
donment of sensual gratifications. The 
more, however, he saw of the world, the 
more convinced was he of the hollowness 
of its professions, and the certainty of its 
disappointments. Even when apparently 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS, 47 

the most elated with prosperity, he was 
at heart disgusted with life. On one 
occasion, in particular, when about to 
pronounce before the emperor a pane- 
gyric replete with fulsome adulation, 
while his friends were congratulating 
him on the honor, stung with the false- 
hood of what he was about to utter, he 
pointed to a sot, excited by a momentary 
spirit of hilarity, and exclaimed, " Be- 
hold the goal of my ambition ! at best 
the end of my crooked courses is to be 
a few hours of animal gratification !" A 
natural and cutting reflection for any of 
the votaries of pleasure; but the self- 
reproaches of such a mind as Augustine's 
must have been peculiarly severe. Often 
did he resolve to consecrate a stated 
portion of his time to the practical duties 
of religion. But procrastination, with 
her secret and deadly opiates, had lulled 
him into a stupor: months rolled away, 
while each succeeding day brought its 
business to engross and its pleasures to 
captivate. He discharged the duties of 
his profession; attended the levees of 
the great; indulged in the amusements 



48 THE EFFICACY OF 

of the age under the name of relaxation, 
and — neglected his soul. 

To follow him through all the tortuous 
mazes of his intellectual course, would 
be alike tedious and unprofitable. One 
by one the bars of his prison were rent 
asunder : and his * mind became more 
fortified with the proofs of the divine 
origin and inspiration of the Scriptures. 
His infidelity, indeed, had never been ex- 
clusively the offspring either of specula- 
tion or of feeling. It was the combined 
opposition of the understanding and the 
heart: or rather, we may say, that he 
was unconsciously resolved, with all his 
might to impugn, and with all the lubri- 
city of an ingenious and versatile mind, 
to elude the grasp of every argument 
that would compel him to obey the moral 
and spiritual requirements of the Gospel. 
The credibility of scriptural truth pre- 
sented itself to his mind, as to the minds 
of thinking inquirers in general, as a 
matter of reason and a matter of fact. 
Considering the subject abstractly, his 
chief difficulty, as we have seen, respected 
the origin of evil : and it is sufficient to 



A mother's prayers. 49 

state, as the result of his mature deliber- 
ations,, that he arrived at a view which, 
though by no means a full resolution of 
the question, is probably the nearest ap- 
proximation to it which human reason 
can make. "Evil," he tells us, "has no 
positive existence : if it were a substance 
like all the other creatures of God it 
would be good : it is a privative ; a want 
of agreement, and a confusion in the 
relations, of things in themselves good." 
In other words, evil is a violation of order. 
But Augustine perceived the fallacy of 
this mode of investigation : and, with a 
spirit in advance of his age, he turned 
his attention to the matter of fact, and 
bent all his force to the inquiry whether 
the Scriptures were or were not the 
word of God. Formerly, in common with 
many disguised infidels of the present 
day, he had, by a verbal equivocation, 
professedly admitted while he practically 
denied the inspiration of the Scriptures ; 
adopting the Pantheistic notion, which, 
in modern times, we are used to ascribe 
to Spinoza, but which in fact is one of 
he progeny of the old Greek philosophy, 
5 



50 THE EFFICACY OF 

and was in Augustine's day, a favorite 
tenet of the Manichees, that God and the 
universe are the same thing : and conse- 
quently, that the Scriptures may be said 
to be inspired, though in the same sense 
in which any other book, or even a forest 
or mountain is inspired. On reviewing 
the subject, however, in his maturer 
years, he came to a different conclusion : 
and the chain of reasoning by which he 
was led to it, but which it does not 
comport with the brevity of the present 
work to trace, is evidence of an acute 
and discriminating mind. The argument 
which had most weight with him, is the 
same by which babes and sucklings are 
drawn into the kingdom of Christ, and 
which, after all, has been the refuge and 
the solace of the greatest minds, especially 
when, by the discipline of life, their affec- 
tions have ripened into piety, and the 
waywardness of speculation has sobered 
down into the calmness of reflection. 
It is the sublimity and the simplicity of 
evangelical truth : on the one hand, its 
worthiness of God ; on the other, its 
entire adaptation to the wants of man. 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 51 

But even this view in the present state 
of Augustine's mind was theoretical 
rather than practical. It was more the 
perception of what the effect of the 
Gospel might be, than the conscious 
experience of what it actually was. 
There was nothing like it, he tells us, 
in the Heathen philosophy. The nearest 
approach which he found to it was in 
the writings of Plato ; and the perusal 
of them, as he intimates, served, in some 
degree, to prepare his mind for the re- 
ception of the pure and scriptural theo- 
logy. A mind like his, however, needed 
the warmth as well as the light of truth. 
But the Platonic books, he tells us, had 
nothing of the tears of confession, the 
sacrifice of a troubled spirit, a broken 
and contrite heart, the earnest of the 
Holy Spirit, and the cup of redemption. 
None there hears Come unto me all ye 
that labor and I will give you rest. It 
is one thing, he beautifully adds, to see 
a land of peace at a distance, with no 
practicability of reaching it, and another 
to pursue the right road toward it under 



52 THE EFFICACY OF 

the care of the heavenly commander who 
made the road for your use. 

The reader who has thus far followed 
the subject of this narrative, will perceive 
that events are now hastening to the 
crisis, which it will be the object of the 
next chapter to disclose. The clouds of 
his spiritual horizon are- beginning to 
dissipate. He has seen and embraced 
the truth; and the truth has begun to 
operate. "His desires," he tells us, 
"were no longer inflamed with the hopes 
of honor and money, and he was dis- 
pleased with the servitude of the world." 
In other words, he had been penetrated 
with a genuine sorrow for sin ; and was 
beginning in sincerity to put up the as- 
pirations that his heart and life might be 
purified from its stains. The seed had 
germinated : the vine had sprung up and 
had crept along for some distance on the 
surface: and we shall presently have 
the satisfaction of seeing it suddenly shoot 
up and twine around the tree of life. 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 53 



CHAPTER IV. 

Leaves Milan — Interview with Simplician — The conversion 
of Victorinus — State of the Church at Milan — His conversion 
— Visit to his mother — Dismisses his pupils — His Baptism — 
Death of Monica. 

The nearer Augustine approached 
to the hour of decided conversion, the 
fiercer were the assaults of Satan, and 
the more tempestuous were the billows 
of his turbulent soul. How long he 
retained his professorship at Milan is 
uncertain ; but it would seem, from his 
own account, that previously to the time 
of which we are now speaking, he had 
left the city and opened a school for rhe- 
toric in the country. Hence he had not 
access to the counsels of Ambrose or his 
mother ; and, in this destitution, feeling 
more than ever the need of a spiritual 
guide, he anxiously cast his eyes about 
him for succor. There resided in his 
neighborhood Simplician, a Christian of 
distinguished piety and advanced age. 
He had been the spiritual father of Am- 
brose, whom he afterward succeeded in 
5* 



54 THE EFFICACY OF 

the episcopate, and who, while he lived,* 
cherished for him the affectionate rever- 
ence of a son. To him Augustine had 
recourse and unbosomed all his griefs. 
The venerable Christian heard his tale 
with the deepest interest ; entered most 
cordially into his feelings ; gave him a 
lucid exposition of scriptural truth, and 
encouraged him to an immediate and 
public avowal of the faith of Jesus. 
Then, for his further encouragement, he 
gave him a minute account of the con- 
version of Victorinus, a distinguished 
philosopher of the age, who had been long 
looked up to by the Heathen as one of 
the bulwarks of their religion, against 
the encroachments of Christianity, but 
who in the latter part of his life had 
embraced the Christian scheme in prefer- 
ence to any of the philosophical systems 
with which he had been conversant.* 



* As the conversion of Victorinus is in itself a remarkable 
manifestation of divine grace, and throws light on the state of 
the Church at the time when it happened, the reader, it is pre- 
sumed, will be gratified with Augustine's account of it in th« 
able translation of Milner: 

" He was a man of great learning, far advanced in life, well 
skilled in all liberal knowledge ; he had read, criticised, and illus- 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 55 

This event occurred under Julian the 
Apostate: and Simplician added, that, 
on his profession of Christianity, Victo- 
rinus was obliged by law to abandon his 
professorship, a sacrifice which he cheer- 
fully made. The narrative was not lost 
on Augustine. He admired the noble 



trated many philosophers ; he had taught many illustrious sena- 
tors ; had been honored by a statue erected in the Roman forum, 
as a reward of his magisterial labors ; and even to his old age 
was a Worshipper of idols, and a partaker of all the rites, to which 
almost the whole Roman nobility at that time were addicted j 
moreover, he had, many years, defended the monstrous and 
absurd objects of worship to which the common people had been 
accustomed. But now, he was not ashamed to become a child 
of thy Christ, an infant of thy fountain, with his neck sub- 
jected to the yoke of humility, and his forehead subdued to the 
reproach of the cross. O Lord, thou who bowedst the heavens 
and earnest down, who touched the mountains and they smoked, 
by what means didst thou insinuate thyself into his heart I He 
read, as Simplician told me, the holy Scripture, and studiously 
investigated all Christian literature, and told my instructer, not 
openly, but in secrecy as to a friend, "Know that I am already 
a Christian." He answered, " I shall not believe it, nor rank 
you among Christians, till I see you in the Church of Christ." 
But he smiling answered, "Do walls then make Christians 1" 
This kind of dialogue was frequently repeated between them. 
For Victorinus feared to offend his friends, men of rank and 
dignity, and he dreaded the loss of reputation. But after that 
by further studying of the word and by secret prayer he had 
acquired more strength, and feared to be denied by Christ 
before the angels, if he denied him before men, and felt himself 
condemned for being ashamed of Christian sacraments, though 
he had not been ashamed of demon- worship, he blushed at his 



56 THE EFFICACY OF 

example, and resolved, at the moment, 
to imitate it, and surrender voluntarily 
the same employment, which Victorinus 
had been forbidden to exercise. At 
that time the amalgamation between the 
Church and the world, which afterward 
insidiously increased, until Christianity 
was merged in the maxims of worldly 



false modesty, and suddenly said to Simplician, " Let us go to 
the Church, I wish to be made a Christian." The venerable old 
saint, unable to contain his joy, went with him, when he was 
imbued with the first sacraments of instruction. Not long after 
he gave in his name that he might have the benefit of Christian 
baptism. Rome was astonished, the Church rejoiced. The 
proud saw and were indignant, and gnashed with their teeth 
and pined away ; but the Lord his God was the hope of thy 
servant, and he no longer regarded lying vanities. At length, 
when the season came on of professing his belief, which pro- 
fession is usually at Rome, from a high place in the sight of the 
faithful, in a certain form of words gotten by heart, by those 
who are to partake of the grace in baptism, an offer was made by 
the presbyters to Victorinus, that he should repeat them more 
secretly, as was the custom for some who were likely to be 
disturbed through bashfulness. But he chose rather to profess 
his religion in the sight of the holy multitude ; for there was no 
salvation in rhetoric, yet he had publicly professed it. When 
he mounted the pulpit to repeat, with a voice of congratulation, 
as many as knew him resounded his name; and who did not 
know him 1 Amidst the general joy, the sound, though checked 
with decent reverence, went around, 'Victorinus, Victorinus.* 
They exulted at the sudden sight of him, and were as suddenly 
silent, that they might hear him. He pronounced the form of 
words with an excellent confidence, and all wished to hold him 
in their bosom, and they actually did so in love and joy." 



a mother's prayers. 57 

policy, had scarcely begun. The Church 
for the most part continued to be what 
its founder originally designed, and what 
its best friends are ever anxious to render 
it, " a city set upon a hill ;" distinguished 
from the world by the holiness of its 
members. Augustine therefore under- 
stood that Christian obligations would 
admit of no compromise with the fashions 
and pursuits of the age ; that not only 
his amusements, but even his secular 
employment, connecting him as it did 
with heathen society, must be abandoned. 
Such a sacrifice he knew to be necessary 
to his peace of conscience : but like all 
those who would be " delivered, through 
Jesus Christ, from the body of death,' ' 
he felt "another law in his members 
warring against the law of his mind." 
"The two wills," he says, "the old and 
the new, the flesh and the spirit, con- 
tended within me, and between them 
tore my very soul." 

The presence of his mother at this time 
would have rendered unnecessary his 
application to Simplician : and, had she 
known the situation of his mind, she 



58 THE EFFICACY OF 

probably would have been with him to 
guide him with her spiritual counsel. 
But Monica, though she never despaired 
of the conversion of her son, had long 
since given over the attempt to influence 
his religious opinions. She had remain- 
ed at Milan: wisely judging that the 
spiritual interests of both would be best 
promoted if she continued to enjoy the 
ministrations of Ambrose, by aid of which 
her piety would be increased, and her 
prayers for the salvation of her son be 
rendered more prevailing and more fer- 
vent. Another motive induced her to 
the same decision. The Church at Milan 
was at this time suffering persecution; 
and Ambrose was the especial object of 
the cruelty of the implacable Justina. 
In this hour of danger the devoted flock, 
in the true spirit of the primitive Church, 
gathered around their pastor, determined 
to accompany him to the stake. Monica, 
it may well be supposed, was among 
the foremost in courageous piety ; and, 
it may be doubted, whether even mater- 
nal solicitude could have tempted her to 
desert her Church in the prospect of 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 59 

martyrdom. Night after night, in com- 
pany with a holy band of worshippers, 
did she continue in the temple in un- 
wearied watching and prayer : and thus, 
while the flame of the mother's devotion 
was burning in its purest lustre, and her 
prayers were ascending with sublimest 
fervor, she was about, though she knew 
it not, to receive the reward of her piety, 
and realize the consummation of her 
highest hopes in the effectual conversion 
of her son. 

When the mind has been long subject- 
ed to an accumulation of influences, a 
mere trifle may serve to turn the scale, 
and determine it to a new course of con- 
duct. Or to use another illustration, 
when the spiritual vision has been long 
clouded with earthly mists, it is quite 
conceivable that these, in a moment of 
mental excitement, may be dissipated, 
and a ray of truth be brought, for the 
first time, in direct and efficient contact 
with the soul. Something of this kind 
we are now to record in the case of 
Augustine. One day, at his own house, 
while enjoying the conversation of Aly- 



90 THE EFFICACY OF 

pius, who was spending with him a 
vacation from his professional pursuits, 
he received a visit from Politian, their mu- 
tual friend and fellow-townsman. After 
they were seated, Politian, observing a 
volume on the play table which was be- 
fore them, took it up, supposing it to be 
a work on rhetoric, but found, to his sur- 
prise, that it was the epistles of St. Paul. 
Politian, though a soldier, and at court, 
was a Christian, and he cordially con- 
gratulated Augustine on his taste. This 
led to various conversation, in the course 
of which, Politian gave an account of 
two of his young friends, who had sud- 
denly renounced the world, and conse- 
crated themselves to God in a life of 
devotion. The narrative awakened in 
the mind of Augustine feelings, which 
the conversion of the aged Vietorinus, 
much as it affected him, had failed to 
inspire. The recollections of early life, 
of time misspent, of talents abused, dis- 
appointed hopes, restless and still un- 
satisfied ambition, rushed forcibly on his 
mind. " For twelve years," he said, " I 
have been seeking wisdom, and I am 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 61 

still at a distance from joy* For twelve 
years have I mocked thee, my God, with 
prayers for chastity and continence, with 
the impious reservation that thou wouldst 
for awhile longer defer to grant my peti- 
tion. For twelve years have I deferred, 
from day to day, devoting myself to God, 
under pretence of inquiring after truth. 
And now I hear of youths who have at 
once seized the crown around which I 
have so vainly wandered. " What is 
this," he exclaimed to Alypius, "what 
is this which we have heard ? Illiterate 
men rise and seize heaven, while w T e, 
with all our learning, are rolling in the 
filth of sin [" In a state oi violent agita- 
tion, he caught up the sacred volume 
before him, and retired to the adjoining 
garden. Alypius, who, though incapa- 
ble, from his greater placidity of charac- 
ter, of sympathizing in the uncontrollable 
perturbations of his friend, yet shared his 
interest in religion, followed him and took 
a seat by his side. The soul of Augus- 
tine was now tossed on the waves of 
excited passion. God and the world 
s trove for the mastery. " What will thy 
6 



62 THE EFFICACY OF 

friends say," whispered the arch deceiver. 
11 Throw thyself on God," replied a voice 
from within. The storm of his soul in- 
creased, and he withdrew to a short 
distance that he might privately give 
expression to his grief. Alypius in amaze- 
ment, was riveted to the spot ; while 
Augustine prostrated himself beneath a 
fig-tree, and, with a voice broken by 
convulsive sobs, exclaimed. " How long, 
Lord, wilt thou be angry? for ever? 
How long shall I say to-morrow ? gWhy 
should not this hour put an end to my 
slavery ?" " Take up and read ; take 
up and read," was repeated frequently 
in an audible voice. In these words 
Augustine recognised a voice from hea- 
ven. He hurried back to the spot where 
Alypius was sitting, seized the volume 
of St. Paul's epistles which he had left 
there, opened it, and the first passage 
that struck his eyes was ; cc Not in rioting 
and drunkenness; not in chambering 
and wantonness ; not in strife and envy- 
ing; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and make not provisions for the flesh to 
fulfil the lusts thereof." Immediately all 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 63 

his doubts vanished: and a delightful 
serenity overspread his soul, as with a 
tranquil countenance, he closed the book 
and handed it to Alypius. 

Such, in substance, is Augustine's own 
account of his conversion, and the writer 
desires to be understood as stating the 
fact, without becoming responsible for 
any theory with which the reader may 
choose to connect it. He will venture, 
however, to remark, that, whatever may 
be thought of its particulars, taken as a 
whole, it manifests a signal operation of 
divine grace. The voice which Augus- 
tine fancied that he heard, was probably 
the illusion of an excited imagination; 
though it is fair to mention that he him- 
sejf, at the time, combated this idea, and 
endeavored, in vain, to convince himself 
that the words had been previously im- 
pressed on his mind, and were now re- 
called by the ordinary process of asso- 
ciation. His conviction of its reality, 
in the judgment of a reader competent 
to estimate the character of individuals 
by the standard of the age in which they 
lived, casts no more suspicion on the 



64 THE EFFICACY OF 

rationality of his piety, than does his 
belief in Astrology on the vigor of his 
understanding. Both were in keeping 
with his times. But whether the words 
were or were not audibly pronounced, 
is a question of merely speculative in- 
terest: since undoubtedly they were 
strongly impressed on his mind, and it 
would ill comport with the genius of our 
holy religion not to resolve this impres- 
sion, and its immediate results, into the 
influence of the Spirit of God. It was 
gratifying to Augustine, that the doubts 
of Alypius yielded together with his own. 
Both dated the commencement of their 
Christian career from the same hour; 
and their mutual friendship was thence- 
forward knit together by the imperish- 
able ties of Christian love. 

Augustine was now better capable of 
appreciating the anxiety of his parent ; 
and in company with Alypius, he set off 
instantly for Milan to inform her of the 
eventful change which had occurred in 
his feelings and prospects. The trans- 
ports of Monica's joy, as she now greeted 
her son, a monument of the saving grace 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 65 

of her Lord, were equalled in excess only 
by the paroxysm of her grief when she 
had agonized over the loss of the same 
son in the oratory of St. Cyprian, on the 
morning that he had fled from Carthage. 
Again and again did she listen to the 
narrative. Again and again as he re- 
peated it, did she alternately clasp her 
son to her bosom, and fall upon her knees 
to pour out her devout thanksgiving for 
his recovery. Before, when she had 
looked upon her child, nature and grace 
had put in their separate claims and 
distracted her heart. But now, with a 
happy concentration of blissful emotions, 
she could exult in him as a mother, with- 
out trembling for him as a Christian. 

Augustine now in good earnest set 
about altering his course of life. He 
determined to give up his business as a 
teacher of rhetoric, though to avoid the 
appearance of precipitancy and any mis- 
construction of motives, he deferred car- 
rying the resolve into effect until the 
vintage vacation, which was nigh at 
hand. He then frankly explained to his 
pupils his views and intentions; ad* 
6* 



66 THE EFFICACY OF 

monished them in a friendly and Chris- 
tian strain, and requested them to provide 
themselves with another teacher. His 
next care was to write to Ambrose, give 
him an account of his past obliquities 
and future designs, and solicit the assist- 
ance of that eminent saint in qualifying 
himself for baptism ; and then, with a 
view to further preparation for this so- 
lemnity, he spent a few months in retire- 
ment at the house of his friend Verecun- 
dius. Nor must we forget to mention, 
that about this time he received the 
cheering news, that his old associate 
Nebridius, who had been carried away 
by one of the heresies of the age, had 
returned to a better mind ; and, having 
for some time evidenced the sincerity of 
his faith by a consistent Christian deport- 
ment, expired in Africa, their native 
country, in the hope of the fruition of a 
happy immortality. 

Having completed his term of prepara- 
tion, Augustine, in company with Aly- 
pius, repaired to Milan, where the two 
friends gave in their names for baptism. 
The star of the church at Milan was now 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 67 

in the ascendant, and pure and brilliant 
was the light of its golden candlestick. 
The sword of persecution had cut asun- 
der the ties that bound the faith of its 
saints to the earth, and, with youth re- 
newed like the eagle's, they were soaring 
aloft, on strong pinion, to gaze at the 
splendor of the Sun of Righteousness. 
The regeneration of the son of Monica 
added new fuel to the celestial flame ; 
and Ambrose, as he better knew the 
illustrious convert, caught a glimpse of 
the future glory of Augustine. Night 
after night, like the wise virgins, they 
arose and trimmed their lamps in vigils 
and prayers. They sympathized in the 
passion of their suffering Lord; they 
followed him to Calvary ; wept over his 
agony and death, and low in the dust 
breathed their solemn litany to the God 
of their salvation. At length, on the eve 
of Easter, in vestments of white, entering 
the church in slow procession, and with 
lighted tapers, the candidates surrounded 
the baptismal font, and pronounced the 
solemn vow which severed them from 
the world and bound them to heaven. 



68 THE EFFICACY OF 

Imperial Csesars ! Proud philosophers ! 
How, abashed, would ye have hung your 
heads had ye known that this band of 
worshippers, the object of your persecu- 
tion and scorn, were giving birth to those 
seraphic strains in which the monarchs 
of a thousand generations were to cele- 
brate their triumphs, and which to the 
end of time were to waft hallelujahs to 
the Most High TE DEUM LAUDA- 
MUS !* And thou sainted mother ! who 
then, rapt in ecstacy, wept over the con- 
summation of thy hopes, couldst thou 
have looked through the vista of future 
years, and seen the light which the piety 
of thy son was destined to shed on the 
darkness of the Christian world, how 
wouldst thou Lave felt the efficacy of a 
mother's prayers ! 

Detached from his secular employments, 
and with nothing to detain him in Italy, 
the mind of Augustine naturally reverted 
to the place of his nativity, as the sphere 
where he might most acceptably to others, 



* The reader is presumed to be aware of the tradition that the 
Te Deum was composed by St. Ambrose, and first sung at the 
baptism of St. Augustine, 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 69 

and most gratefully to himself, devote 
his time to the study and diffusion of his 
faith. And the only earthly wish which 
Monica retained inclined her to the same 
destination. With the melancholy ten- 
derness, which formed so lovely a trait 
in her character, she had caused, hefore 
she left Tagaste, a sepulchre to he pre- 
pared where her remains might repose 
by the side of her husband and kindred, 
in the bosom of her native earth. Provi- 
dence too, had, at this time, thrown in 
their way Euodias, one of their townsmen, 
who had been recently regenerated, and 
the accounts which he gave them con- 
firmed them in their resolution of revisit- 
ing Tagaste. Accordingly they left Rome 
and sailed down the river to Ostia, where 
they proposed spending a few days in 
preparation for their voyage. The inter- 
course which of late had been sweetened 
by religious sympathies, became more 
and more sublimated as they were charm- 
ed with the new beauties, awed with the 
new glories, and animated with the new 
hopes which the Spirit unfolds to the 
expansive vision of a pure and growing 



70 THE EFFICACY OF 

faith. Once, in particular, as they sat 
at a window facing the east, and com- 
manding a rich prospect around the 
mouth of the Tiber, the view of the rising 
sun transported their thoughts to the 
dawning of its glorious antitype on the 
morning of the resurrection. " We as- 
cended," says Augustine, "above the 
noblest parts of the material creation, 
to the consideration of our own minds, 
and, passing above them, we attempted 
to reach heaven itself, and come to Him 
by whom all things were made. There 
our hearts were enamored, there we held 
fast the fruits of the Spirit, and returned 
to the sound of our own voice which gave I 
us an emblem of the Divine Word. We 
said if a man should find the flesh, the | 
imagination, and every tongue to be 
silent, and God alone should speak, not 
by any emblems of created things, but 
by himself, so that we could hear his 
word; should this be continued and 
other visions be withdrawn, and this 
alone seize and absorb the soul for ever ; 
is not this the meaning of ' enter thou 
into the joy of thy Lord.' " " At that 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 71 

moment," he continues, " the world ap- 
peared to us of no value. My mother 
said to me, ' Son, I have now no delight 
in life. One thing only, your conversion, 
was an object for which I wished to live, 
This prayer my God has granted. What 
do I here V " A friend reminded her of 
the regret which she had often expressed 
of leaving her body at a distance from 
her country. She fixed her eye on him 
as if in sorrow for his grovelling con- 
ceptions; and then, turning to her son 
with a look of dignified complacency, 
exclaimed, " Place this body any where. 
Nothing is far to God. He will know 
where to find me at the resurrection. 
My prayers are answered. What do I 
here?' The presentiment was verified. 
Within a few days she fell into a fever, 
and, after a brief illness, expired in the 
arms of her son, 



72 THE EFFICACY OF 



CHAPTER V. 



Retires in company with Alypius to Tagaste — Repairs to 
Hippo, where he is made Presbyter — The success of his minis- 
try — Is appointed Bishop — Plan for the education of ministers 
— The Pelagian controversy — Some account of his writings. 

The conversion of Augustine was but 
the first-fruits of his mother's prayers. 
It was followed by a golden "harvest of 
good works, the prospect of which though 
denied to Monica on earth is unfolded to 
her spiritual vision, and destined to be 
throughout eternity a chief source of her 
beatitude in a purer world. A rapid 
glance at these labors of love, and at the 
more obvious results that flowed from 
them, may still animate the pious mother 
to similar fervor and constancy of devo- 
tion, and may help to inspire the filial 
bosom with an adequate sense of the 
efficacy of a mother's prayers. 

Augustine could not have been insen- 
sible to those mingled emotions of grief 
and joy, with which the demise of an 
eminent Christian seldom fails to affect 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 73 

the surviving Christian relative. The 
stroke which had severed his mother 
from his mortal embrace released her, he 
knew, from prison, gifted her with the 
liberty for which she had long sighed, of 
a heavenly spirit, and removed a barrier 
to an indissoluble and more sublimated 
union in the joys of the Lord. But none 
realizes more than the newly-renovated 
Christian, that, in a world where so much 
evil exists, and consequently so much 
good may be done, the energies of life 
are too precious to be expended in feel- 
ings : and Augustine, having remained 
long enough at Ostia to pay the last 
offices of respect to his departed parent, 
embarked, in company with Alypius, for 
the scene of his future usefulness. 

About four years had elapsed since he 
had quitted his native land. With what 
different feelings did he revisit it ! He left 
it an ambitious and miserable worldling 
in quest of perishable riches, and of that 
honor which is the breath of human ap- 
plause. He returned an humble and 
happy Christian, in possession of that 
godliness which is great gain, and of 
7 



74 THE EFFICACY OF 

that peace of God which passes all under- 
standing. But no consciousness of pardon 
can wholly extinguish the workings of 
remorse. The remembrance of past sin 
is ever a bitter ingredient in the cup of 
present felicity. This Augustine felt as, 
on disembarking at Carthage, the decep- 
tion which he had practised on the mo- 
ther, whom he had now consigned to the 
tomb, was recalled vividly to his mind. 
The lips, which he would fain have heard 
pronounce his forgiveness, were sealed 
in death. What then could he do but 
look up to God, and exclaim in the words 
of the Psalmist, and with a deeper sense 
than ever of their import, Against thee, 
thee only have I sinned ! 

From Carthage, the two friends repair- 
ed to their native village Tagaste, and 
Augustine took up his abode on his fa- 
ther's estate. Here he spent nearly three 
years in retirement from the world. De- 
voting himself to prayer and meditation, 
and to the study of the oracles of God, 
he enriched his mind with those treasures 
of sacred lore, which were afterward so 
extensively blessed as the means of re- 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 75 

suscitating and invigorating the Church 
of Christ. About the expiration of this 
time, an eminent citizen of Hippo, who 
was inquiring after the truth, being ac- 
quainted [with the character of Augus- 
tine, invited him to his house, with the 
desire of receiving his counsels. Augus- 
tine accepted the invitatioai, not knowing 
that this was the road by which Provi- 
dence was conducting him to the door 
which was to open on the field of his 
future labors. The Church at Hippo 
was then under the episcopal care of 
Valerius. Though a man of piety, yet 
for want of fluency in the Latin tongue, 
then fast superseding the vernacular, 
Valerius was in a great measure incom- 
petent to the duties of his office : and the 
earnest desires of his people, coinciding 
with his own predilections, he was anxious 
to secure to his charge the services of 
Augustine. It is difficult to give those 
of the present day an adequate idea of 
the dread with which the assumption of 
ministerial responsibilities was then re» 
garded. Chrysostom, who was born in 
the same year with Augustine, and Am- 



76 THE EFFICACY OF 

brose, who but little preceded him, had 
even stooped to dishonorable artifices, to 
avoid being invested with the pastoral 
office: and Augustine, though possessed 
of clearer views of duty, yielded to the 
solicitations of Valerius and his people 
with great reluctance. During the cere- 
mony of his ordination, he was observed 
to be greatly agitated, and unable to 
refrain from weeping. He afterward 
told Possidonius, that his tears were 
imputed to disappointment at not being 
ordained presbyter instead of bishop ! 
" Such poor judges," says Milner, " are 
many of the views and sensations of 
godly men !" 

The vigorous intellectual endowments 
of Augustine were softened by the ami^ 
able dispositions which were inherited 
by the son of Monica : and now that the 
whole man was brought under the sceptre 
of divine grace, he exhibited a rare ex- 
ample of that greatness, which, as Chris- 
tianity has taught us, consists in humility. 
He was necessarily brought into collision 
with the errors of his age ; but so free 
was he from the asperity of a controvert 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 77 

sial spirit, that he made friends of his 
opponents and conciliated where he could 
not convince. " Heretics," says the his- 
torian, " vied with the members of the 
general Church in their attention to his 
pastoral labors." But controversy was 
only incidental and occasional. For 
the most part, he devoted himself, body 
and soul, to those humbler, and therefore 
in the Christian scale, greater duties of 
his office, which lie nearest the heart of 
an affectionate pastor. One of the most 
arduous and delicate of these duties, was 
the adjustment of differences ; the Church 
of this age being mindful of the apostolic 
rebuke, " Dare any of you, having a 
matter against another, go to law be- 
fore the unjust, and not before the saints'?" 
His labors were extensively blessed. The 
Church at Hippo put on her robes of 
white, and exemplified the " admirable 
change," which the heavenly-minded 
Leighton so beautifully describes, "when 
Christ, after a kind of winter absence, 
returns to visit a declining Church; 
and all begins to flourish by his sweet 
influence; and his house, his worship^ 
7* 



To THE EFFICACY OF 

and his people, are all clothed with a 
new beauty which is spiritual, and which 
none but a spiritual eye can discern." 

The impulse which Augustine was the 
instrument of imparting to the Church 
at Hippo, communicated itself to the 
neighboring churches, and conveyed his 
fame throughout the western world. 
Valerius sympathized with his flock in 
their gratitude to God for so inestimable 
a gift ; and, as the infirmities of advanced 
age increased his unfitness for his labors, 
he cheerfully acceded to the request that 
Augustine should be elected as his asso- 
ciate. The aged bishop himself was soon 
removed to a better world.* Augustine 
succeeded him, and long continued to 
discharge with zeal and fidelity, the 
duties of an office which he had shunned 
with protestations of reluctance, from 
which the character alike of the man 
and the age repel the suspicion of insin- 

* In the character of Valerius, as in a few other points, the. 
writer has preferred the account of Milner, although aware that 
it differs from that of some other historians. He takes this 
opportunity also to say, what he had intended to mention in his 
letter to the Committee, that the narrative has been chiefly com- 
piled from the confessions of Augustine, as translated by Milner. 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 79 

cerity. And thus devoted to the over- 
sight of an extensive Church, which he 
had already been the means of purifying 
from error, and reviving from decay, 
Augustine, almost in the outset of his 
Christian career, illustrated the efficacy 
of a mother's prayers. 

" The zeal and laboriousness of Au- 
gustine, increased with his authority :" 
and, severe as were his labors, the active 
spirit of his benevolence led him to origi- 
nate and carry into operation, a plan 
which has since been repeatedly imitated 
and attended with the happiest results 
to the best interest of the Church. His 
previous acquaintance with the Mani- 
chees ; the observations which his past 
life had qualified him to make on the arts 
of heresy and infidelity in general ; and 
the enlightened and comprehensive views 
which he formed of the nature and di- 
versified bearings of Christian truth, and 
of the injury which it sustains from advo- 
cates who have a " zeal of God, but not 
according to knowledge," impressed his 
mind with a deep sense of the want of a 
pious and efficient ministry. With a view 



80 THE EFFICACY OF 

to a partial remedy of this evil, he pro- 
jected and founded at Hippo, an insti- 
tution for the education of those who 
desired to become preachers of the Gos- 
pel. Under his faithful and vigilant super- 
intendence, this seminary continued to 
flourish : and of the number of laborers 
which it sent into the vineyard of the 
Lord, some idea may be formed from 
the fact, that Possidonius, his friend and 
biographer, was acquainted, as he tells 
us, with ten bishops who there laid the 
foundations of their theological know- 
ledge. These ten, his biographer adds, 
founded other institutions, in their re- 
spective dioceses, on the model of Au- 
gustine's ; each one of which became in 
turn a nucleus from which the radiance of 
" faith, hope, and charity," diverged to 
penetrate the darkness of a sinful world, 
and to illumine thousands of immortal 
spirits with the light of life and immor- 
tality. Had the mother of Augustine 
been a woman of ordinary Christian 
character, she would have given over in 
despair praying for her reckless son. 
But with Monica, " faith was the sub- 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 81. 

stance of things hoped for, the evidence 
of things not seen ;" and in the germ of 
her simple faith all these blessings were 
contained. And when in the progress 
of events we behold the germ unfold, 
and gradually expand into the verdant 
and fruitful tree, how reasonable appears 
the simplicity of her faith ! How delight- 
ful the illustration it offers to the Chris- 
tian eye, of the efficacy of a mother's 
prayers ! 

Previously to the time of Augustine, 
the purity of the Catholic faith had been 
considerably vitiated. Origen and other 
eminent divines, led astray by "the lights 
of false science," had marred the simpli- 
city and loveliness of the heaven-born 
truth, by torturing it into an unnatural 
alliance with the crude and barren con- 
ceits of heathen philosophy. In the time 
of Augustine, these wide-spreading cor- 
ruptions concentrated themselves in the 
system of Pelagius, and thence breaking 
out afresh, raged with such virulence as 
to threaten the extinction of evangelical 
piety. To explain the peculiarities of 
this system would exceed the limits pre* 



82 



THE EFFICACY OF 



scribed to the present work. Under 
various aspects, it has existed in the 
Church from the time of its reputed 
founder to the present day; and the 
practical operation of it has ever been to 
accommodate Christianity to mankind 7 
by inclining them to soften its precepts 
without surrendering its promises. In- 
deed it is the spirit of the world disguised 
under the mask of the Gospel. To de- 
tect its fallacies, repel its assaults, expose 
its tendencies, and crush its pretensions, 
required a mind of Herculean grasp, well 
versed in the Scriptures, and deeply con- 
vinced, not less by arguments in its de- 
fence, than by experience of its efficacy, 
of the truth of the doctrines whose inter- 
est was at stake. Such was the mind 
of the Bishop of Hippo. Its energies, 
naturally lofty and aspiring, had been 
subdued, as we have seen, by the sternest 
discipline, and cast down from the soar- 
ings of human pride, to seek for greatness 
in the depths of humility. His iron soul 
heated in the furnace of affliction, and 
wrought into conformity with his master's 
will, had experienced in an eminent de- 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 83 

gree, "the baptism of the Holy Ghost 
and of fire." In short, he had been spe- 
cifically trained for the war which Pe- 
lagianism provoked. And wonderfully 
indeed did he acquit himself. The de- 
scription of his labors in this department 
alone might fill a volume. He refuted 
his opponents in public counsels. He 
wrote voluminous treatises in refutation 
of their errors. He personally interposed 
to rescue many individuals from their 
snare. Regardless of the contempt and 
opposition of the worldly great, from 
whom the Gospel, as it shows them no 
favor, receives none in return, he carried 
home its truths, at once humbling and 
elevating, to the bosoms of the poor, to 
whom as they were originally offered, so 
they have ever proved congenial. Nay 
more, he restored to the doctrines of 
grace much of their original purity, dis- 
cussing them with such clearness and 
fulness, that from his own time to that 
of the Reformation, his writings became 
in the words of the historian, " a great 
and useful light, indeed next to the word 
of God, the greatest means of grace which 



84 THE EFFICACY OF 

the Church possessed." This work was 
to be done, and God qualified Augustine 
to do it. But when we glance at the 
numerous schools of philosophy, and con- 
template the thousand master-spirits who 
were capable of controlling the destinies 
of their age, why, we naturally ask, 
should God have passed over all these 
and chosen for his work the son of an 
obscure woman in Tagaste? At this 
question, reason is dumb, or speaks only 
to betray her ignorance. But faith, with 
a confidence worthy of her heavenly 
origin, ascribes the election to the efficacy 
of a mother's prayers. 

Augustine was one of the most volumi- 
nous of ancient writers. Besides the 
controversial works, to which we have 
already alluded, his Treatises on Faith 
and Works, on Christian Doctrine, on 
the Trinity, and several other important 
subjects, are celebrated. But the great- 
est of his works, is his City of God. At 
the end of the fourth century, the city of 
the world, as Rome may by way of emi- 
nence be termed, was falling to decay. 
The ignorant multitude, instigated by 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 85 

their crafty leaders, attributed to the 
new religion the miseries which were the 
natural consequences of their vices and 
luxuries. To repel this odium, Au- 
gustine describes the city of the world, 
in contrast with the city of God ; tracing 
to its legitimate causes the decay of the 
former, and unfolding the principles of 
the perpetuity of the latter. After re- 
butting the fertile objections which gave 
occasion to the work, the writer proceeds 
to demonstrate by an induction of per- 
tinent facts, that the Pagan systems, 
tending to degrade the character, and 
offering nothing to avert or mitigate the 
calamities of life, afford no remedy either 
to moral or natural evil, and are conse- 
quently unfit to promote the temporal 
happiness of men ; and from the jejune- 
ness and absurdities of their philosophic 
theories, he infers their equal inadequacy 
to provide for their spiritual happiness. 
He then opens the mediatorial scheme, 
and shows how abundantly it supplies 
our moral destitution, and provides for 
the elevation of human character, and 
the consequent advancement of human 
8 



86 THE EFFICACY OF 

happiness. In this view are embraced 
the outlines of a system of theology : the 
origin of evil, the nature and consequences 
of the fall, the character and offices of 
Christ, and the authority of the Scrip- 
tures. He describes the progress of the 
city of God, through its various changes, 
from the time of Adam to the birth of 
Christ, and gives the coeval history of 
the city of the world : and, in conclusion, 
dwells on the issue of the two states. 
The work consists of twenty-two books, 
and though it contains much that is foreign 
to the taste of the present age, the re- 
verence in which it was held for many 
ages may incline us to adopt the opinion 
of a competent judge, that " the City of 
God is one of the greatest efforts of genius 
and learning in any age." This and his 
other works were for ages, the great 
treasury of theological knowledge : to 
all of which, equally with his pulpit dis- 
courses, may be applied the words which 
we have selected as our motto — " Augus- 
tine would never have preached if his 
mother had not prayed." 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 87 

CHAPTER VI. 

His death — Conclusion. 

To enter into any further detail with 
respect to the character and habits of 
Augustine, or the events of his life, is 
the province of his biographer. Our 
humble task is completed ; and we must 
now bid adieu to the subject of our nar- 
rative. He died at Hippo, amid the 
horrors of a siege inflicted by the Vandals, 
who had invaded Africa, under the con- 
duct of Genseric ; and the closing scene 
of his long and laborious life seems the 
more tranquil and blissful, by contrast 
with outward tumult and misery. The 
blaze of momentary triumph was not to 
be expected from the substantial nature 
of his piety ; but he enjoyed, in death, 
" the comfort of that reasonable, religious 
and holy hope," which, like a light arising 
out of darkness, shines forth from the 
shades of penitential abasement. " He 
used to say, that a Christian should never 
cease to repent, even to the hour of his 



88 



THE EFFICACY OF 



death. He had David's penitential 
psalms inscribed on the walls in his last 
sickness ; and for ten days before he ex- 
pired, he desired to be uninterrupted that 
he might give himself to devotion." He 
died in the 77th year of his age, after 
having been bishop or presbyter upward 
of forty years. 

And now, my young friends, you have 
been presented with two opposite por- 
traits of the same individual. The fea- 
tures of both are identical, the expression 
how different ! In the one, you behold 
man as he has made himself; degraded 
and miserable. In the other, you behold 
man as he is the workmanship of God, 
created anew in Christ Jesus unto good 
works. The one, is the repulsive exhi- 
bition of moral ruin ; the other, beams 
with the glories of the new creation. 
The former, in its leading features, is the 
picture of your soul by nature. It is 
for you to say, whether, to the same 
extent, you now resemble the latter 1 
One of these opposite characters you 
must possess as long as you shall exist. 
This is the necessity of your nature, and 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 89 

you cannot escape it. But which of the 
two it shall be, God has suspended on 
your choice. The blessing of the latter, 
it is his to give, but it is yours to pray 
for and accept. Which then will you 
choose? Will you tread the path which 
Augustine once trod, and which leads 
from partial perdition here, to total per- 
dition hereafter ; or will you follow him 
and all the saints of God in the bright 
career of benevolence, and be changed 
for ever into the divine image from glory 
to glory by the Spirit of the Lord ? 

The formation of your character, my 
young friends, and the determination of 
your final state, rests, under God, on 
yourselves. To secure your own happi- 
ness, may be safely proposed as your 
only motive. But in the course of this 
narrative, one inducement to a life of 
piety has been offered which must weigh 
much with every ingenuous mind. It is 
parental solicitude. Perhaps you are 
blessed with parents in whom this soli- 
citude is enlightened by Scripture, and 
manifests itself in earnest prayers in your 
behalf, and in unwearied efforts to renew 
8* 



90 THE EFFICACY OF 

your affections, and to form your con- 
science, and regulate your conduct by 
the truth of the Gospel. Will you frus- 
trate their prayers'? Will you resist 
their persuasions? Will you thwart 
their efforts % Their happiness is bound 
up in yours. Even if reckless of your 
own fate, will you hold the poisoned 
chalice to their lips ? 

And Christian mothers, shall the ex- 
ample of Monica be lost on you ? With 
you are intrusted the best interests of 
the Church, and it is through your in- 
strumentality that she must hope to 
realize her brightest visions. Nor is it 
among the least encouraging indications 
of the approach of a happier era, that the 
importance of your influence and respon- 
sibilities is beginning to be more worthily 
appreciated. It is as mothers that your 
sex is to repay the blessings which Chris- 
tianity has conferred on it. Others may 
guide the stream of virtue, or stem the 
torrent of vice, but it is your peculiar 
province to purify the first springs of 
human action. You only can sow the 
seeds of truth, in soil as yet unoccupied 



A MOTHER'S PRAYERS. 91 

by the world. Your labors may not 
always be attended with precisely the 
result which you expect, but they can- 
not be in vain. Truth is imperishable. 
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
the word of God shall never pass away. 
And thus in your silent and unobtrusive 
sphere, you may be sustained by the 
lofty consciousness, that in communicat- 
ing the eternal and diffusive principles 
of truth and love to immortal minds, you 
are exacting an influence which can 
never fail; which like the secret but 
mighty energy of nature, will be known 
by its effects ; and which, when the 
kingdoms and empires df the world have 
vanished ; when the wisdom of senators, 
and the valor of warriors are forgotten, 
shall have lost nothing of its heavenly 
vigor, but actively as ever, shall 

Spread undivided, operate unspent. 

As co-workers with God, it must ne- 
cessarily be that you cannot work in 
vain. But this general assurance of the 
efficacy of your labors, however it may 
ennoble and support you, does not, 



92 THE EFFICACY OF 

should not satisfy you. You wish to 
see your labors effectual to the entire 
conversion of your children. You wish 
to see them evidence that living faith 
which unites them to the mystical body 
of the Redeemer. This indeed constitutes 
the highest felicity of a Christian parent. 
But thus to crown your efforts with en- 
tire success ; thus to give efficiency to 
the truth, is the special and exclusive 
prerogative of God. In the natural life 
we may calculate on results with a good 
degree of certainty. The end is sure to 
follow the means. And what is the con- 
sequence ? Why, we rest in secondary 
causes ; deny the providence, and even 
the existence of the Supreme, and wor- 
ship nature in his stead. So it has been 
in the world, and so it would be in the 
Church, if the same uniformity visibly 
existed in the economy of grace, and the 
means were alike infallible to produce 
the specific and entire result to which 
they conduce. But in the spiritual 
world, God will not suffer his supremacy 
to be questioned. He will convince you 
that your labors are nothing. The con- 



A MOTHERS PRAYERS. 93 

sciousness of this truth will lead you to 
humble, fervent, and unceasing prayer. 
You will pray that the Spirit of God 
may breathe over the moral chaos, whose 
jarrying elements you would otherwise 
in vain endeavor to adjust and harmo- 
nize, and beautify it with the loveliness 
of the new creation. Prayer will thus 
be the anchor of your soul : it will re- 
press presumption, and prevent despond- 
ency. Go on, then, teaching the truth 
in love, and, with the simple and per- 
severing faith of Monica, imploring the 
blessing of God on your efForts, and you 
may safely leave it to the day of judg- 
ment, to reveal (as it alone can reveal) 
the full efficacy of a Mother's Prayers ! 



THE END. 



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